College Seminar (101-7-22)

Topic

Ukraine: Why Should We Care?

Instructors

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern
847/467-3399
Harris Hall - Room 317
YPS is the Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies in History Department. He edited seven and authored seven books, including, together with Paul Robert Magocsi, Jews and Ukrainians: a millennium of coexistence (2018). In 2024, his contribution to the spread of knowledge about Ukraine in USA is acknowledged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-339: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Using the current Russia-Ukraine war as a springboard, this course provides a historical and cultural backdrop of the conflict outlining Ukraine as a colonial addendum of Poland, Russian Empire, and the USSR. Students will focus on thirty-year long history of Ukraine after the 1991 collapse of the USSR against a broad historical, political, socio-economic, and cultural perspective. Students will discuss the formation of a modern post-colonial nation bringing together insights into art history, comparative literature, nationalities and imperial studies, social and political history, and genocide studies. We will use op-eds by the famous world poli sci pundits, journalism blogs of Ukrainians who write during air raids, video clips and movies filmed over last thirty years in the independent Ukraine, poems and novels reflecting the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Based on high level of interaction, this course will explain why Ukraine suddenly moved from a peripheral position in the new and minds of European scholars into the central place of the world politics.

Learning Objectives

To help students understand how local events and conflict in the modern world acquire global significance and impact everybody across the globe. To raise the awareness of the historical processes in the making, including the making of modern nations. To outline and train students how to productively use elements of postcolonial study and the imperial vs. nation-state framework in a non-dogmatic nuances manner. To train students write short op-eds, bringing the reader into the context of the socio-political conflicts.

Class Notes

History Major Concentration(s): European
History Minor Concentration(s): Europe, United States, Law and Crime

Class Attributes

WCAS College Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.
Add Consent: Department Consent Required
Drop Consent: Department Consent Required